Solanum smithii S.Knapp

  • Authority

    Knapp, Sandra D. 2002. section (Solanaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 84: 1-404. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Solanaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Solanum smithii S.Knapp

  • Type

    Type. Ecuador. Loja: Ca. 30 km S of Catamayo on rd. to Cariamanga, 1900-2000 m, 4° 10'S, 79°20'W, 6 Feb 1984, Knapp & Mallet 6252 (holotype, NY; isotypes, AD, BH, F, G, GH, K, MEXU, MO, QCA, QCNE, US).

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrubs to 1 m; young stems and leaves glabrous to densely red-papillose, the branches erect; bark of older stems dark reddish-brown. Sympodial units not geminate, difoliate or plurifoliate, with many short shoots. Leaves elliptic, widest at the middle, occasionally thick and somewhat coriaceous, glabrous adaxially, pubescent with tufts of dendritic trichomes ca. 0.5 mm long in the axils of the main lateral veins abaxially, with 4-6 pairs of main lateral veins; lamina 5-14 x 1.5-5.5 cm, the apex acute to rounded, the base attenuate, minutely winged onto the petiole; petiole 0.5-1.5 cm long. Inflorescences internodal or on short shoots, simple, glabrous, 1-5 cm long, 6-10-flowered\pedicel scars unevenly spaced 3-5 mm apart. Buds elongate and somewhat pointed when young, later ellipsoid and strongly exserted from the calyx tube. Pedicels at anthesis thick and fleshy, erect, 0.9-1 cm long, ca. 1 mm diam. at the base, ca. 1.5 mm diam. at the apex. Flowers with the calyx tube conical, 1.5-2 mm long, the lobes deflate with a small rounded knob at the apex, 1-1.5 mm long, papillose, the margins bearing a few simple or dendritic trichomes; corolla white, fleshy, 1.5-2 cm diam., lobed nearly to the base, the sinuses thin and membranous, the lobes planar at anthesis, tips and margins densely papillose; anthers 4.5-5 x 2-2.5 mm, poricidal at the tips, the pores teardrop shaped; free portion of the filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, the connective somewhat enlarged at the base, the filament tube ca. 1 mm long, glabrous; ovary glabrous; style 6-7 mm long, glabrous; stigma strongly and divergently bilobed, the surface minutely papillose. Fruit a globose, green to greenish-white berry, 1-1.2 cm diam.; fruiting pedicels somewhat deflexed, woody, 1-1.3 cm long, 1-1.5 mm diam. at the base, 3-4 mm diam. at the apex, the calyx lobes reflexed in fruit. Seeds pale tan, ovoid-reniform, 4-5 x 3-4 mm, the surfaces minutely pitted. Chromosome number not known.

  • Discussion

    Solanum smithii is superficially similar to S. barbulatum (S. amblophyllum species group), also of highland Ecuador and Peru, but differs from that species in its ovoid-reniform seeds and axillary tufts of dendritic trichomes. The closest relative of S. smithii is probably S. tunariense of Andean Bolivia. Solanum smithii differs from S. tunariense in having trichomes confined to small tufts in the axils of the main lateral veins on the abaxial leaf surfaces, in its somewhat larger leaves, and in its longer fruiting pedicels.

  • Distribution

    In dry forests and scrublands in the Huancabamba depression of northern Peru and southern Ecuador, from 1900 to 2600 m.

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